BOSTON -- While friends of the historic Old North Church celebrated, critics decried a $317,000 federal preservation grant, saying the Bush administration was blurring the lines separating church and state.

The 280-year-old church, where two lanterns were hung to signal Paul Revere that the British were coming by sea during the Revolutionary War, will receive the funds under a change in government policy, according to The Associated Press.

Previously, historically significant structures that were also used for religious purposes have been ineligible for federal historic preservation grants. Old North is still an active Episcopal church.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced the grant May 27, saying all historically significant structures would be eligible for federal money under the new policy, the news service reported.

"This new policy will bring balance to our historic preservation program and end a discriminatory double standard that has been applied against religious properties," Norton said in a statement.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a 52-year-old Washington-based group, criticized the change.

"Gale Norton is wrong on the Constitution at a minimum because the Constitution prohibits turning the public treasury into a church building fund, and that's apparently what this administration now wants to do," said Barry Lynn, the organization's executive director. "It's really a gross abuse of tax dollars to drop public funds into the collection plate of an active church."

The grant will be used to repair and restore windows in the building and make it more accessible to the public, AP reported.

On the night of April 18, 1775, two lanterns were hung from the church steeple to alert Revere about how the British were heading to Lexington and Concord.